Greetings,
First off, congratulations to Cory Zimmerman, who is yet another Paynesville native to earn Eagle Scout status. As I have done with other Eagle Scout recipients, I wrote a letter of commendation to Cory in recognition of his strong leadership qualities and impressive moral character.
As for state news, we continue to deal with the mess Minnesota IT Services created with our vehicle licensing and registration system. I have addressed this issue time and time again as we work to get the $100 million money pit known as MNLARS off the ground.
And, just when it seems things can’t possibly get any worse, this week we learned MNIT decided to spend $2.5 million to reportedly upgrade their office space. Yes, I get it, offices occasionally need improvements and apparently there are some cost-avoidances related to leases by conducting the work. That said, spending $2.5 million to revamp office space seems to run crossways with the fact that MNIT (and the governor) just made a dramatic plea for $10 million more from the taxpayers just to keep the MNLARS operation’s lights on. The Legislature bit its lip and provided the funding (along with some additional accountability/transparency reform), only to now learn of this office spending.
Things have been quiet at the Capitol this week as the Legislature takes a brief break to recognize the Easter/Passover season. There was a big effort to get bills through various committee stages last week, including hearings for a number of proposals I’ve authored. They include:
- H.F. 4252/4023: To cover events such as barn weddings/dances, this bill creates a program to inspect places of public accommodation. Such place are defined as serving alcohol and designed for occupancy by 200 or more people.
- H.F. 1007: Sets criteria that must be met before state agencies sue a local government. The goal is to try to resolve issues before they reach the courts, diminishing the number of unnecessary lawsuits between states and local government authorities and saving taxpayers some money.
- H.F. 2899: Provides greater clarity for homeowners by requiring the residential contractor and the insurer/adjuster to provide a written explanation of the statute which prohibits contractors from waiving the deductible for homeowners, along with their initial estimate.
- H.F. 3447: Requires IT and telecommunication projects over $100,000 to be developed and completed by contract. (See: MNLARS fiasco).
All of these bills received successful hearings and remain up for consideration to pass this session. Other bills of mine also continue to make their way toward the House floor. Look for more to develop on that side of things after the Legislature returns to St. Paul next week. Our efforts will shift more toward conducting votes of the full House for final passage of proposals as we get closer to our scheduled date of adjournment in late May.
Good luck,
Jeff